Emerge USA is a radical Muslim group which works to further its Islamist agenda via political advocacy. Like most political advocates, the group attempts to infiltrate political circles by sponsoring candidate forums and by raising funds for politicians, from whom it thinks it can buy influence. Unlike most advocates, the forums Emerge puts on are many times held at extremist mosques associated with terrorism. Two of the politicians Emerge has targeted with support, Democrats Joe Garcia and Annette Taddeo, are now running in a primary against each other for US Congress. Regardless of the victor, Emerge will have its candidate for the general election.
The main individual behind Emerge is Khurrum Wahid, a South Florida attorney who has built his name on representing high profile terrorists. His past clients include: Rafiq Sabir, who received a 25-year prison sentence for conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda; al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who received a life sentence for plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush; Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) co-founder Sami al-Arian; and Miami imam Hafiz Khan, who sent $50,000 to the Taliban to kill American troops overseas. According to the Miami New Times, Wahid himself was placed on a federal terrorist watch list in 2011.
Prior to creating Emerge, Wahid served as a legal advisor for the national office of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a director of CAIR’s Florida chapter. Emerge USA’s Florida Executive Director, Ghazala Salam, was also a representative of CAIR, previously holding the position of CAIR-Florida Community & Government Relations Director. CAIR was founded, in June 1994, as part of a terrorist umbrella group run by then-global leader of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook. The US Justice Department has named CAIR a co-conspirator in the financing of Hamas. Leaders of CAIR have been imprisoned for terrorist-related activities.